Chapter 30: Operating Theater

The first experience that Ling Ran had in the operating theater was while he was affiliated to a medical organization.

In order to ensure the bleeding control’s effectiveness, Ling Ran stretched out his arm and held on for nearly an hour. While he waited for the moment his arm would be liberated, his entire limb went numb.

However, this also allowed him to observe an operation from another closer angle. It was also quite a valuable experience for a medical student.

“How did you know the point was at the Glisson’s capsule?” After the vital signs of the patient were stabilized, Huo Congjun was also much more relieved than before. He did not even inform the General Surgery Department before he started performing the surgery himself.

He came first from the General Surgery Department. Although he had been transferred to the Emergency Department many years ago, snatching the General Surgery Department’s surgeries was still what he did most.

Ling Ran was rubbing his arm. At the same time, he was also recalling the feeling he felt just now as he said, “Because the volume of the bleeding was huge, the patient’s abdomen was basically exposed on the front and there were no signs of any other problems such as hemothorax. So I paid attention to the situation of the blood flow.”

The technique that Ling Ran acquired was the Perfect Level Barehanded Bleeding Control Technique. For that, not only did his muscle memory become greater, his corresponding knowledge reserves, too, increased.

It could be said that other than the lack of on-site experience, and the lack of practical experience on real and solid bodies, Ling Ran’s barehanded bleeding control technique had attained the standard of top-notch doctors.

In comparison to that, even though Huo Congjun was the Director of the Emergency Department, the standard of his barehanded bleeding control technique was only a little better than a beginner, and he was far from reaching Specialist Level. Hence, he was even further away from reaching Master Level and Perfect Level. Besides, he would not spend time studying the barehanded bleeding control technique even if he was free.

This time, Huo Congjun suddenly recalled the pain of being dominated by his mentors and his prodigal classmates at the start of his vocational training.

“Where did you learn this from?” Huo Congjun could only start asking questions from this point on.

Ling Ran thought for two seconds before he decided to throw in his ‘question eliminator’ and replied, “I learned this from my family’s own clinic.”

“Your family’s own clinic?”

“Lower Groove Clinic.”

“That is not far from our hospital. Is it a community health center in an alley of Lower Groove?” Huo Congjun gave it some thought for a few seconds, and found that he actually knew the place. He said, “Lower Groove has always been sending patients to our Emergency Department. I never noticed that they possessed such a skill though.”

The Lower Groove Clinic was just like other community health centers. The income source of the health centers basically came from patients with influenza and fevers. But they would sometimes encounter some cases that were more complicated. For instance, patients with acute appendicitis coming to the clinic thinking that they were just having a bad stomach ache; patients who had an ectopic pregnancy thinking that they were just having a normal stomach ache; or patients who had acute pancreatitis thinking that it was just a stomach ache… Or maybe like Boss Yang from the knife-pared noodles restaurant last time. If he did not run into Ling Ran, he would have gotten basic treatment at Lower Groove Clinic and be transferred over to Yun Hua Hospital after that.

Ling Rad also did not expect that Huo Congjun would actually know Lower Groove Clinic. He simply decided to let time solve the problem. “I learned it from the physician in charge.”

“Your clinic has such an impressive physician in charge?” said Zhao Leyi, who served as first assistant beside Department Director Huo, but he felt like he was supporting Ling Ran in another form, and he, for some reason, felt a little uncomfortable because of that.

“I have no idea if the physician is good or not,” Ling Ran said, “I only learned for a month.”

Zhao Leyi was inclined to not believe him as he said, “You can learn it in a month?”

“The main key to learn the barehanded bleeding control technique is talent.” Ling Ran’s reply was particularly serious. It absolutely did not match the atmosphere in the operating theater.

Zhao Leyi was retorted to the point he was rendered completely speechless. A thought appeared in his head, ‘I’m the attending physician, you know? Why would I want to be a stooge to a mere intern?’

He cast an unexpected glance at the young nurses to the side… That was when he noticed the way they looked at Ling Ran: the gentleness, the admiration, and also the indescribable emotion in their gazes he had never felt trained on his person before…

Zhao Leyi felt quite troubled. He looked at Ling Ran again. It felt just like the time back in his elementary school, when he had to watch the class monitor carrying three canes tied together, trying to collect homework from around the class when Zhao Leyi himself did not complete his own homework that morning.

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“The liver seems to be in a good shape.” After he was done with the bleeding control, Huo Congjun went on to attend to the intestines and the greater omentum. He had become much more relaxed as his words were easier on the ears now.

Zhao Leyi, who was responsible to chat with him, snapped back to attention and also extended his head out to observe the operation. He agreed and said, “The patient is quite lucky. Department director, your suturing is perfect. It should not affect the patient’s functionality. He’s not merely good luck, your skills are good as well.”

The fact that the patient, whose life was in danger and was now saved, gave Huo Congjun a feeling of fulfillment. His mood took a good turn, but he immediately thought about Ling Ran who acted on his own accord. So Huo Congjun put a stop to his intention to praise Ling Ran, and said,

“However, no matter how good your technique is, you still have to follow operating procedures. Even if you are sure that you will succeed, you should not have meddled with this issue like that. Have I made myself clear?”

“Yes, sir.” Ling Ran was a person who was willing to follow operating procedures, but the procedures that he was willing to abide by were the technical procedures, not the administrative ones.

If he was not an intern but was an attending physician or associate chief physician, his stunt of pulling off a rescue with barehanded bleeding control would have garnered praise from everyone from the entire department.

At the same time, Ling Ran was also reflecting on his actions during the operation. Putting what you have studied into practical use was an appropriate learning attitude to be placed in medical practices. Medical skills were refined under constant revision, after all.

The atmosphere was tense for a moment, but after a while, Huo Congjun decided to alleviate the atmosphere. He could not help but say, “Normally, it would be very easy to hurt the liver and intestines when using your hands to pinch them. Not to mention that five out of ten hepatobiliary complications are similar.”

Huo Congjun lowered his head. He spoke as he worked. “The technique that Ling Ran used just now is rather distinctive. The blood flow is quite smooth. Were you using the pulp of your finger?”

He had directly asked Ling Ran that last sentence.

The saying of ‘being thrilled to see one’s favorite sport and having the itch to play’ would fit completely to describe the mood of a doctor who saw a special case, just like Huo Congjun did at that moment.

He actually thought of criticizing Ling Ran. But then again, he could not help but want to fulfil his curiosity first. Well, it was not really that important to criticize his actions anyway.

Ling Ran made some gestures with his hands and said, “When I put my hand in, I found that the bleeding source was not in an easily accessible position. So I used the inner pulp on the second section of my little finger.”

“After that, you used your entire hand to hold the liver?” Huo Congjun put some thought into it for a moment. A simulation of the situation from that time came to his mind.

Ling Ran replied with an affirmative and said, “I used the joint of the finger to hold it down lightly to prevent it from breaking loose.”

“In that case…” Huo Congjun sighed with a tinge of emotion, but he did not continue asking questions. He was already a man who was more than fifty years old, it would be very difficult for him to learn such techniques now.

The most important thing was that he would not have the time to learn a side skill like this. Nevertheless, he did not know how Ling Ran had picked this up.

“You’ll perform the abdominal closure later.” Huo Congjun’s head was lowered as he spoke.

Laparotomy was the chief surgeon’s duty, while closing the abdomen was an opportunity that many assistants would fight for. The opportunity would be even rarer for interns.

Some resident doctors would need to train for more than half a year before it was possible for them to have the opportunity to perform abdominal closure.

It was true that Ling Ran had performed debridement and suturing many times over, but those were merely minor operations. They were not even operations in the eyes of laymen. Abdominal closure still seemed to fascinate Ling Ran. He could not help but feel a bit motivated.

Huo Congjun was still going through the intestines. By now, he was able to understand: After the patient on the operating table had his liver injured and squeezed into the corner, Ling Ran could only use his softest and smallest little finger to reach in if he wanted to reach his fingertip inside to press on the wound.

He solved the issue of organ displacement by holding his finger down lightly, and also minimized the possibility of the organ being damaged twice…

However, the inflexibility of the little finger had troubled countless surgeons for over a hundred years in the past. Huo Congjun believed that a doctor who had stayed in the operating room for a lifetime might not even be able to possess technique of such a caliber. And yet, there was a doctor with such skills right before his eyes, and even more astonishing was the fact that this was the first time he entered an operating theater.

In the face of talent, all those who were untalented could not help but sigh.